NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23058, 8 June 1938, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

DANGERS OF SLIMMING To slim vigorously without proper medical supervision is to court danger, said Sir Edmund Spriggs, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, speaking on behalf of the British National Fitness Campaign. "Although the body can go for long periods without proper nutrition," ho said ,"its resistance to disease is, among other ills, considerably reduced, and the mental ability is affected." Starvation might give a feeling that tho spirit was clearer, free of the body, and had escaped the desire for food. Sir Edmund continued. If such pcoplo did not die of starvation hospital treatment was usually necessary to bring them back to health. The casual taking of slimming drugs was also a dangerous practice. 'Slimmers could bo a social nuisance. People who were unduly diet conscious were uncomfortable to live with. DWINDLING SUNDAY SCHOOLS The heavy fall in tho number of children attending English Sunday schools reported at the Baptist Union meetings (Baptists 16,000 fewer in the year,. Congrogationalists 23,000, Methodists 66,000, Anglicans 82,000), is a serious matter for the Churches, but perhaps not as serious as it looks, writes "Janus" in tho Spectator. By no means all the lapsed thousands would have gone on to be Church members, and by no means- all of them will fail to become Church members. The general attitude toward Sunday, and tho family car in particular, has created heavy competition to the Sunday school, which can never hopo to retain anything like tho place it held in tho lito of tho Churches a generation ago. Whether it can even retain any place at all is a little uncertain. The supply of suitable teachers, moreover, gets more difficult rather than less. COLONIAL RAW MATERIALS "It is said," stated Viscount Samuel in the House of Lords, "that tho Commission of the League of Nations reports that only 3 per cent of the world's consumption of imported raw materials comes from colonial territory. Therefore it would appear at first sight that a matter that affects only 3 per cent is unimportant and that what matters is the 97 per cent of the production, which comes from other countries which are not colonies. But the 3 per cent, translated into terms of quantities, represents an enormous amount, and when that 3 per cent is applied to particular commodities the percentage is, of very much greater than three. In certain raw materials tho colonial production is of a much higher order; but, apart from that, as the commission points out in its report, it is a question not only of quantity, but also of indispensability. In our bodies we have vitamins which as a percentage of our bulk are infinitesimal, and yet without them we sicken and die. Some of these raw materials coming from colonial territories are of prime importance and are, indeed, indispensable to tho nations concerned." BURDEN QF LOCAL RATES A campaign for economy in local government was urged by Sir Frederick Marquis, in his presidential address to the Drapers' Chamber of Trade in London. "The considerable increase in tho cost of local'government," Sir Frederick said, "has fallen unduly on retail distributive trades. Although there has been a variation of assessments the amount collected in rates in 1037 was more than £100,000,000 in excess of 1914, an increase of 140" per cent. The average vrato in the pound has ini creased from 6s 9d to lis 6d. The time [ is coming when we shall have to ask for a more rigid economy in local gov- [' eminent, based on a better business organisation of municipal affairs. We are indeed in some danger of becoming a spendthrift nation, forgetting the oldfashioned principles of public economy which were the foundation of so much of our prosperity in the past. We are faced with the necessity of large expenditure on armaments. About the wisdom and necessity of that expenditure I believe that there can be no doubt. But I have grave fears for the future financial stability of this country if at ono and tho same time we are spending freely in every branch of public affairs." SHROPSHIRE PASTORAL In his book, "Shropshire Days and Shropshire Ways," Mr. Simon 'Evans sketches a rural postman, John Tudor, and at the same time the life of the countryman. .Ho writes:—A country postman! Well, you may say his life is not very exciting—walking, always walking, out every morning, back again every evening, day after day, week after week, month after month, the same old task repeated timo after time. To bo quite honest, there are times when a country postman's job is not exactly a pleasure trip; weeks of rain and bad weather are rather depressing, but what about tho good things? What about tho sights and sounds worth seeing? Have you ever walked across a stretch of windy moorland in the half-light before the dawn and heard the early morning silence broken with startling suddenness by a peal of distant cock-crow? Have you ever stood on the highestridge of some great hill and stared at woods and grassy slopes all about you as the rising sun Hoods the countryside with light ? Have you ever seen the catkins and delicate blackthorn blossom, warm splashew of colour in the naked hedgerows, long before the spring arrives? Have you ever stretched your ears to catch tho first faint "Cuckoo" from the wooded hollow where a gipsy's fire has been burning—like a rod glowing sun in miniature—all night? Have you ever seen that bright blue jewel, tho kingfisher, flash under tho old stone bridge? Have you ever walked through a long orchard in springtime, when a gusty wind sends down tho blossom, pink and white, like scented snow about your shoulders? Have you ever met a whistling farm-hand, early in the morning, with a pair of big, patient horses going. off to plough ? Have you ever stood in some quiet hollow and stared at tho stars on a frosty night? All these, and a thousand more sights and sounds, are some of the rewards, some of tho joys, which belong to country people. A country postman is a countryman and he has his share of sights and sounds.